“So what is joy? Is it a symptom, a surprise, a sovereign bestowal, a supernatural response? Why does it pop up under every conceivable circumstance? And why is it elusive as a butterfly, dying if you hold onto it?” “Defining the Indefinable” Joe Aldrich

Joy is the Christian’s contentment resting on the certain truth that satisfaction of our deepest delights comes not FROM God but IN God. Defining Joy

Habakkuk 3:17-19

“All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end…. The ‘will’ never takes the least step but to this objective.” Universal Quest Blaise Pascal

I am created for joy

Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Psalm 90:14

Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you? Psalm 85:6

But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. John 17:13

I am created for joy

For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning. Psalm 30:5

Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. John 16:20–22

“Indifference to the pursuit of joy in God would be indifference to the glory of God, and that is sin. Therefore, my quest took on a seriousness, an earnestness, a gravity that I never dreamed would be part of pursuing joy.” Serious Joy

Joy's ultimate source is the Lord Himself

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. Psalm 4:7

For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth over and around us lies: For the joy of human love, brother, sister, parent, child, friends on earth and friends above, for all gentle thoughts and mild: Sources of Joy

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. Philippians 4:1

Joy's ultimate source is the Lord Himself

“There have been times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether, in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else.… It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work.… All your life an unattainable ecstasy has hovered just beyond the grasp of your consciousness. The day is coming when you will wake to find, beyond all hope, that you have attained it.” The Secret Signature

Joy is found in “high places”

I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. 2 Corinthians 7:4

Joy is found in “high places” where I: Freely Worship

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, “Great is the Lord!” Psalm 40:16

David also commanded the chiefs of the Levites to appoint their brothers as the singers who should play loudly on musical instruments, on harps and lyres and cymbals, to raise sounds of joy. 1 Chronicles 15:16

Joy is found in “high places” where I: Find Perspective

More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:3–5

… looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2

Joy is found in “high places” where I: Faithfully Lead

And I wrote as I did, so that when I came I might not suffer pain from those who should have made me rejoice, for I felt sure of all of you, that my joy would be the joy of you all. 2 Corinthians 2:3

In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ Acts 20:35